Amish House of Secrets (2 page)

Chapter 2.

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever:

with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 89:1

Wil had talked excitedly so much about the house that Emma was expecting something far grander.

When he stopped the buggy in front of the driveway, the only thing that came out of Emma’s mouth was, “This isn’t it, is it?”

Wil opened the buggy door and stepped out. “
Jah
, it’s stunning, isn’t it?”

The word Emma would use to describe the house was ‘dilapidated,’ rather than ‘stunning.’ It was built over three levels and it did have a pretty shape. It could look nice with a lot of work, but their plan had been to only change a few things, not to do a full-scale ‘rescue’ renovation.

“It’s big; I’ll say that.” Then she looked at the small yard. “Where would we put the buggy and keep the horses?”

“It’s got land and stables round the back of the
haus
. They look like they haven’t been used for a while, but I can soon fix them up.”

Emma nodded as she thought sarcastically,
Great, more things to fix.
She climbed down from the buggy.

“Come inside and see,” Wil said, linking his arm through hers.

Emma was pleasantly surprised with the interior; it was not as badly rundown on the inside as it was on the outside. “It’s quite nice.”

“Come and see the kitchen.” Wil took Emma’s hand and walked to the left, through the large living room, through another room until they came to the big kitchen.

Emma turned around in a circle. “
Ach
, two living rooms, a formal dining room and now this huge kitchen. I didn’t expect something so large.”

“You wanted a big kitchen, didn’t you? I don’t think we’ll have to do much work in here. We’ll have to get rid of the wires and all the electrical things, such as the lighting and the ovens, but that shouldn’t take long. Smithy and David are going to help me.”

Emma nodded, glad that Wil had some help. She could not help the twinge of a smile that broke out onto her face as she decided that she would be able to live in the
haus.
It had a homey feel to it and once she put personal touches to it, she just might grow to like it.

Wil faced her and put his hands on his hips. “Well, what do you think?”

“It needs a lot more work than you said it would.” She was still mad at him for making the decision by himself and not including her. Was this how things would be in their marriage? Even though the man was the head of the house he still had a duty of respect toward the woman; surely that would mean including her in all their major decisions.

“Are you starting to forgive me a little?”

Emma raised her eyebrows. Was it possible that he knew how mad she was? She had not said a portion of how she was truly feeling. “I’m starting to forgive you a little bit now that I’ve seen inside it. It’s certainly a lot better than the outside. I think we could make it nice.”

Wil laughed and closed the distance between them and took her in his arms. “I know you’re a little cross with me for being impulsive; I know how you like to plan things and organize things to death. I just wanted to surprise you. Everyone needs a little excitement now and again.”

As far as Emma was concerned she’d had plenty of excitement over the past months. “I was concerned with the finances. I would have thought that before we made a huge purchase like this, we would have sat down and worked out how much we both had and where the money was going to come from.”

Wil threw his head back. “I told you before, Emma, I’ve got plenty of money.”

“Enough for a
haus
like this? Even though it’s run down on the outside, it must have cost a lot. Don’t you need my contribution, if it’s going to be our
haus
?”

“Nope.”

Emma breathed out heavily. “Does one of us need to sell?”

Wil shook his head. “Emma, I have a lot of money. Besides inheriting the farm, I inherited quite a bit of money. I’ve enough that we don’t need to be concerned with money.”

Emma was a little taken aback. Levi and Wil had been best of friends and Levi had never mentioned that Wil was so wealthy, but then again, why would he have had the need to mention it? She wondered what they would both do with their two vacant houses, once they finally move into this
haus.

“What are you worrying about now, Emma? I bought this for us because I want you to be happy. I’ll get this old place fixed up in no time. Before we’re married, okay?”

“That’s a lot of work to do in so little time. Are you sure you can do it all?”

“I’ll do the essential things first, to make it livable for us and the rest I can do after we move in.”

“I insist on giving you money towards the renovations. I’ve got $20,000 that I’ve saved; that should make a
gut
start.”

“If you insist; now, no more talk of money.” He pulled Emma into his hard, muscled chest.

She relaxed in his strong arms, pleased that she liked the place.

“C’mon, I’ll show you the rest of it.” Wil held her hand and led her through the
haus
, explaining how he would strip the floors back and what he would do with the cornices and the window frames.

He showed her right through the downstairs, through the two living rooms, formal dining room, a large kitchen and a small bathroom at the end of the far living room. The second level was made up of five bedrooms, main with an en-suite bathroom.

Before they made their way up more stairs to the uppermost level, Wil turned to Emma. “We’ll have these bedrooms filled up in no time.”

“Who with?” Emma frowned, not realizing that he meant that they would have many children. When she caught on to what he meant, she grabbed his arm. “Wil, you know that Levi and I were married for years and didn’t have
kinner.
It just didn’t happen. What if I’m not able?”

“Emma, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. It would be nice to have
kinner
, but I’m just as happy if it’s always just you and me.” He smiled at Emma and the kindness in his eyes made her heart soften. As she followed him up the stairs, she realized that she had started to build walls up in her heart against Wil. She had been looking for reasons why he was not a match with her, instead of looking for reasons why he was a match.

There were two rooms in the uppermost level, and they were both full of cobwebs and dirt.

“Looks like no one has been up here in years,” Emma said.

“The realtor said it was owned by an old lady. I guess she couldn’t make it up this extra flight of stairs. It’s a large place for one lady to clean by herself.”

“Wil, what’s that over there?”

Wil looked to where Emma was pointing. They both walked closer to the small wooden box, the size of a shoebox. Elaborate brass hinges covered the edges of the box and the closure on the front side of it was secured with a padlock.

“What do you think’s inside it?” Emma asked.

“No idea. I’ll go and see the realtor tomorrow and see if he has a forwarding address for the old owner. I’ll get it to her; must be something of value in there if it’s locked. Although it couldn’t have been of too much value if she didn’t think to take it with her.”

“Is it heavy?”

Wil picked it up. “
Nee
, it’s fairly light.”

“Bring it downstairs and I’ll clean it up.”

* * *

Wil was anxious to start the renovations, but he had told Emma that he would stop by the realtor, so he kept his word. He did not want to risk Emma getting upset with him again. He had been warned that women were temperamental sometimes, and Emma had proven that to be true because she did have some mood swings. Her moods did not bother him; he felt it kept him on his toes, although he hadn’t expected her initial lack of joy about the new
haus
.
Maybe she was right; maybe I should have included her in the decision,
he thought as he ran a hand through his hair.

“No, I don’t have an address for her,” the realtor said as he looked through the file. The realtor looked at Wil and adjusted his neat, blue tie. “Just throw it out, whatever you’ve found, people are always leaving things behind. Too lazy to do a proper job of things.”

Wil was not satisfied with the lack of responsibility the realtor showed. “All the same, I’d feel better getting it back to her and she can make that decision.”

“Please yourself. Let’s see.” The realtor looked through the file again. “I can give you her name. It’s Dorothy Welby. I remember that she said she was moving to Florida, to a retirement home.”

“How is it that you don’t have her address? You’d need it wouldn’t you, for contracts and such?”

“She already signed the listing contract, so I didn’t need her to sign anything else. I’d say her lawyer would have her address; he’d need to have it for her to sign the final papers.” He looked through the file again. “Seems I have a post office box address in Florida.” He scrambled through some notes. “I’ll write the name and the post office box down for you. I don’t think her lawyer would give you her address – privacy reasons. You can write to her, see if she wants her old things.” He wrote out her details and handed the piece of paper to Wil.

“I appreciate it.” Wil tucked the piece of paper into his pocket. “So, it’s still alright that I start work on the property even though things haven’t been finalized?” Wil asked.

“Yeah, that’s okay. It’s all cash isn’t it?”

Wil nodded

The realtor continued, “So it’ll be finalized as fast as the lawyers can push it through.”

Wil left the realtor’s office and set off to meet his friends back at the house. They were going to help him assess how much work was needed and where they would start. But first, he would take the address of the old lady to Emma. He knew that once she had one thing on her mind, she thought of little else.

Emma was out in her front garden pulling weeds when Wil pulled up in his buggy. He tied up his horse and walked over to her. “Here you go, Emma.”

“What is it?”

“The old lady’s address. The one who used to own the
haus.
Her name is Dorothy Welby.”

“
Denke
, Wil. I’ll write to her now then I’ll go to the post office and send the letter by overnight mail.”

Wil smiled at Emma. He was right about her wanting to do things quickly. “I’m meeting the boys at the
haus.
We’ll see what we need to do. Don’t worry, I won’t make plans for the kitchen until you come and look at it again.”

“What kinds of things will you and the boys be doing?”

“We’ll need to strip back the floors, patch the ceiling in a couple of places and Smithy is going to get up into the roof to see if we need to replace it.”

Emma gasped. “Didn’t you do all that before you bought it?”

“Relax, Emma. It’s not much to put a new roof on; I’ve helped people before, many times. You’re not having second thoughts about the
haus
, are you?”

“
Nee
, I do like the
haus
.” Emma was more concerned about the money aspect of things than the physical labor it involved. “It’ll be nice once it’s had some work done on it.”

“I knew you’d love it, I just knew it.”

Emma thought back to what Silvie had said the night before. Silvie would have been pleased for someone to buy her a
haus
. Maybe she was being uncaring. Wil bought the
haus
to be nice; he didn’t do it to cause her worry or concern. “
Denke
, Wil for the
haus,
I mean; it was a nice surprise. I’m not much used to surprises, so it took me a little while to get used to the fact that we’ve got a new
haus
, all of a sudden.”

Chapter 3.

Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field,

which to day is,

and to morrow is cast into the oven,

shall he not much more clothe you,

O ye of little faith?

Matthew 6:30

A week and a half went by after Emma had posted the letter to Dorothy Welby by fast delivery, and they had not heard anything back.

Wil and Emma stood looking at the mysterious locked box, which now took center place on the kitchen table in the new
haus.

“Stop worrying about the box so much, Emma,” Wil said.

Emma ran a finger over the top of the box. “There must be something precious in it if there’s a lock on it.”

“Perhaps if we open it, we can find out if there’s anything in there that someone would be concerned about leaving behind. It could be nothing at all.”

Emma swallowed hard trying not to feel guilty at just the thought of opening someone else’s box particularly when that box was locked. “Do you think we should open it?”

“Don’t see why not. We tried to contact the owner, didn’t we?”

“Okay.” Emma nodded to Wil.

“I’ll get a screwdriver. I should be able to undo these hinges rather than risk destroying the box.”

Emma waited for Wil to return with a screwdriver. Minutes later the box was open.

“These are old letters,” Emma said as she picked up the letter on top.

“See, nothing valuable in there at all.” Wil picked up a letter, held it in the air and turned it over. “Just some musty, old decaying letters.”

Emma unfolded one of the pages and read the first few lines of the letter. “
Nee
, Wil. They are valuable, to someone. These are love letters, beautifully written love letters.” She looked into Wil’s eyes as tingles traveled through her body. “They’ve been treasured and kept safe in this box.”

Wil took a letter and sat in the chair next to Emma and began to read. After they both read some letters, Wil said, “These are letters written to the old lady who used to own the
haus
, Dorothy Welby.”

“
Jah,
written to her from someone called Harold.” Emma flipped over an envelope to read the return address. “Harold Fielding, and I can’t see from where they’ve been sent. Can you tell?”

“I think that Harold Fielding was posted overseas in World War Two. I’m sure ‘Field post office’ means that the letters were sent to a central place then sent home from there. By the yellowing of the paper, it seems to fit with the time frame. ”

“And she lived alone. I wonder if he ever came back from the war.” Emma pressed the letter to her heart as she thought of the horrible losses that war brought into peoples’ lives.

Wil lowered his head. “A terrible thing, war.”

“
Jah
,” Emma said as she sniffed and wiped away a tear. She had been far more emotional since Levi’s death than she’d ever been before.

“Well, what do you want to do, Emma? How badly do you want to find this woman?”

“I think she would like to have these letters back.”

“We’ll keep trying to track her down then. Sounds like she’s changed her post office box. I’ll do my best to find the correct address for you tomorrow.”

Emma nodded. “
Denke
. Please see what you can do.”

* * *

Some afternoons Emma travelled into town and met Silvie after work. Silvie worked in a bakery/café, and it was there that the two would sit, drink
kaffe
and chat about life.

“Did you like the
haus
?” Silvie asked when she sat down at the table where Emma had been waiting for her.

“
Jah,
it would have been grand in its day. Wil’s over there now pulling out all the electrical wires. It needs quite a bit doing to it. You should come past and take a look.”

“I will; I’d love to see it.”

One of Silvie’s colleagues placed their order of two coffees and two doughnuts in front of them.

Emma ran her fingertip around the top of her coffee cup. “I think you were right. I think it was you who said the other night that Wil and I do things differently. I like to plan, and he likes just to go ahead and do things, willy-nilly.”

“And that doesn’t mean that the two of you aren’t suited. In fact, it could be a very
gut
match. He can influence you to be a little less cautious, and you can influence him to think more before he does things,” Silvie said.

“I guess so.” Emma swirled the froth of her cappuccino with her spoon and tried not to think of how her late husband, Levi, would have done things. She looked up to see Silvie biting into a pink iced doughnut. “Have you heard from Bailey?”

Silvie smiled and finished her mouthful. “He said that he would come and join our community in six months.”

“
Ach
, Silvie, that’s
wunderbaar.”

Silvie waved a hand in the air. “I’m not believing it though until it happens.”

“What about the case he’s been working on; is it solved?” Emma asked.

Silvie shook her head and brushed the sugar crumbs away from her mouth. “He said that whether it’s solved or not that he’ll come back to me and the community.”

Emma giggled a little and said, “Maybe we should see if Ettie and Elsa-May will help him solve the case.”

“Emma, that’s a
gut
idea. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.”

“I was joking, Silvie. It wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“
Jah,
it is; I’ll ask him.”

“
Nee
don’t, Silvie. Bailey’s a professional agent with years of experience with access to confidential information; he’d be a lot better at solving crimes than a couple of old Amish ladies who’ve rarely left Lancaster County.”

“It’s never been just a couple of old Amish ladies; it’s all of us, you, me, Maureen and Detective Crowley. We’re a really
gut
team.”

Emma’s shoulders slouched and she let out a deep breath. Why couldn’t she have kept quiet? “Bailey might be offended if you mention it to him; after all he’s been on the case for years.”

“What do you mean?” Silvie’s clear blue eyes fastened onto Emma.

Emma adjusted her prayer
kapp
and wondered how to phrase what she was trying to say. “I mean if you say that you think that we can solve it he might think that you see him as not a very
gut
detective.”

Silvie slumped back in her chair. “Ah, I see what you mean. I will have to be tactful.”

Yeah, or not mention it at all
, Emma thought, but she could see that Silvie was determined to go ahead with her plan.

“I’ll take your advice, Emma. I’ll think on things for a while before I mention it to Bailey or the other widows.”

Emma nodded, glad that she would not be drawn into something else; she had enough happening with Wil and the new
haus.
Emma filled up the rest of their time together telling Silvie about the new
haus
and the strange box that they had found.

Later that night when the widows gathered in Elsa-May and Ettie’s home, Emma told them of the box of letters.

“I could find out where she lives, easy as pie. Leave it to me,” Ettie said.

“You could, Ettie? That would be
wunderbaar
.”

“Don’t you have the address, Emma?” Maureen asked.

“
Nee,
I just have a post office box, that’s all.”

“You said she lives in Florida?” Maureen asked.

“
Jah
,” Emma answered.

Maureen leaned forward, her mouth forming a grin. “Emma, why don’t we go to Florida and take the letters with us?”

Emma smiled; she would love to have an adventure and travel somewhere. “I’d like to, but it’s so close to the wedding and Wil’s working on the
haus
.”

“I’ll take over the sewing from Maureen,” Silvie said.

Maureen turned to Silvie. “
Denke
, Silvie. I’ve a fair amount already finished.”

Elsa-May said, “Leave a list of things that Ettie and I can do for you too.”

Emma wondered if she should go. It was all very last minute. It was something that Wil would do, to go somewhere on the spur of the moment. “I’ve never been to Florida,” Emma said, her eyes glazed over, wondering if this was a good idea or not.

“I’ve been to Pinecraft with my parents when I was young,” Maureen said.

“So did I,” Silvie said.

“Go on, do it,” Ettie said, “Have an adventure before you get married.”

Emma chewed a fingernail. “I’ll have to see if Wil won’t mind.”

“He’ll be busy with the
haus
fixing up, won’t he?” Elsa-May asked.

The ladies were interrupted by a knock on the door. Elsa-May opened the door and Detective Crowley walked in with three large glass bowls in his hands.

“Detective, this is a nice surprise. To what do we owe the pleasure? Has someone been murdered?” Elsa-May asked.

The detective laughed, “Not lately, not that I know of. I was in the area and thought I’d bring back Ettie’s empty containers.”

Elsa-May took the bowls from him. “Have a cup of tea while you’re here and something to eat.”

The detective greeted the ladies and said, “Ettie was kind enough to make me some dinners. She thinks I’m going to starve without a wife. Or, should I say a
fraa.
Is that right, a
fraa
?” The detective sat down amidst giggles from the ladies. “Have you all been keeping out of trouble?”

“Emma’s found some old wartime love letters,” Silvie said with a glint in her eye.

The detective immediately looked at Emma.

Emma’s heart began to race. Why did Silvie have to say that? Now she would have to speak to him. She cleared her throat. “Yes, I found them in an old house that Wil just bought. Although, we don’t have an address to get them to the old owner yet.”

“I can find that out for you,” he said.

“You can?” Maureen asked.

“Of course; I am a detective.” The detective looked away from Maureen and back to Emma. “You say Wil bought a house?”

Emma nodded and said, “Thank you, Detective it would be good of you to find where the lady lives now. All we’ve been able to find out is that she lives somewhere in Florida. I’ve only her post office box number.”

“I’ll drop her address by your place tomorrow, Emma, since you don’t have a phone.”

Emma shook her head. “No, I’ll go by your office in the afternoon to save you the drive.”

“Very well, suit yourself,” the detective said.

Silvie said, “Maureen and Emma are going to go to Florida to take the letters to the old lady.”

The detective chuckled. “It’s a bit of a stretch for the horse isn’t it?”

If the detective had not just offered to do her a special favor Emma would have been a little annoyed at his attempt at humor. “We can travel, you know.”

“We just can’t drive ourselves anywhere. We can go on busses and trains, but our bishop will not let us travel by plane,” Ettie said. “Although, my old
daed
used to say that if
Gott
had wanted us to fly He would have given us wings.” Ettie giggled.

Elsa-May handed the detective a cup of tea. After he took a sip, he said, “Wil bought a house, you say, Emma? What was wrong with his old one?”

Emma glanced at Silvie hoping she was not going to open her mouth and reveal yet more of her personal information. Emma knew she would have to speak fast to avoid Silvie doing so. “We’re due to get married soon and Wil bought us a house for us to live in together.” For some reason, Emma felt the awkward need to explain further. “You see, we did not know which house to live in, mine or Wil’s, so Wil bought another house.”

“Must be made of money,” he said in a low voice, his face expressionless.

Emma did not take offence at his sarcasm. She was sure he wanted to get under her skin. “Yes, he’s made of money. Money is not a problem to him.”

“Emma said that it needs a lot of work,” Silvie said.

At that point, Emma gave up. She was a private person and did not want the detective to know all her personal information that Silvie was giving out so freely. Emma knew she should not mind what the detective thought of her, but because of Silvie’s prattling, Emma felt the need to add, “It’s going to be a nice house when it’s finished.”

Emma was thankful that Ettie changed the subject by saying to the detective, “I’ve got some more meals in the cold box for you.”